Meet ‘Korea’s Adele’

South Korea’s TV talent audition shows have been unearthing promising singers for a few years, but most of the performers find that their time in the spotlight is brief and commercial success elusive.

A 16-year-old female singer, Lee Hi, is being tipped to break the mold after sweeping to top spot in the music charts in South Korea for the past 23 days with her debut single “1,2,3,4.”

Ms. Lee was the runner-up on popular singing-audition show “K-Pop Star” in April and subsequently joined YG Entertainment, the home of Psy, Big Bang and 2NE1.

Her single has accumulated 1.3 million downloads, over half of which were in the week after its Oct. 29 launch, in the range normally set by established K-pop superstars. On Nov. 12 she became the first female debut act to hit top spot in Billboard’s K-Pop Hot 100 this year.

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